Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Trip to Tofino

I recently went to Tofino, something I have not done much of since the Clayoquot Sound protests in 1993. I was out there once in the fall of 2005 but otherwise not at all.

I enjoyed the stay at the Long Beach Resort, though it was very odd to be having a fine dining experience and looking out at Lennard Island - a place a friend of mine grew up. In 1993 Tofino had an emerging tourism economy, but nothing very fancy. Now the tourism is very Whistler like, expensive and fancy. Fine dining is now an option at numerous locations in Tofino as are such things as spas and the other upper end hotel frou frou. It is odd to see.

I also noticed that the world has changed, changed by nature. We passed through Cathedral grove on the way out and I had not stopped there since 1993. The place has changed because many of the biggest trees have come down. On the other end, the Kennedy River bridge, site of the arrests in 1993, is not longer out in the open as it was. The forest is regenerating, as it is at the Black Hole. I had trouble finding the Black Hole because of all the regrowth.

Nature changes all the time and the impacts of the timber harvesting in Clayoquot Sound are receding faster than I had ever imagined.